Category Archives: surgery

Medical science seems to progress at such a pace that sometimes, it becomes really hard to believe of the latest techniques. One such method is stem cell banking. What a fabulous method to increase longevity and the quality of life. Totally astonishing!

As all of us know that our body develops from a single cell. That single cell has the potential to give rise to any of the different organs like eyes, bone marrow or liver or kidneys. During the embryonic stage, several such cells are present which have not yet diversified for any organs. Such embryonic cells which have the potential to develop into any organ with proper stimulus are known as the stem cells. Several such cells are present in the blood of umbilical cord which connects the mother to the embryo. Usually the umbilical cord is cut and discarded at the time of child birth. The beauty of the thing is that if such cells are preserved at extremely low temperature (cryopreservation), they can be kept alive for infinite time span. Now, medical scientists have got the way to give the cells, proper stimulus and make them develop in the desired fashion. This gives an insight into the treatment of several serious diseases like cancer, thalassemia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart diseases etc. Time seems no far when the scientists could develop a kidney or cornea from his stem cell, if the patient requires transplant. Now stem cell banks are available at all the major cities of India and provides stem cell cryopreservation facility at very nominal cost. Seeing the growth in medical science and the diverse application of stem cell preservation, one should definitely decide to gift their child an additional life which he could utilize, when he finds it short in future.